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Newsletter: Today: A Date With History and the Future at Pearl Harbor. Carrie Fisher — The Princess and the Rebel.

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I’m Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I don’t want you to miss today.

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A Date With History and the Future at Pearl Harbor

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More than 75 years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on “a date which will live in infamy,” President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scattered petals on the waters of the USS Arizona memorial. It was a symbolic act aimed at honoring the past while laying its hostilities to rest. But the two leaders also had a message for the future, as nationalism rises around the globe and talk of a nuclear arms race resumes: Don’t forget the lessons of World War II.

Carrie Fisher: The Princess and the Rebel

Actor. Activist. Writer. Hero. Carrie Fisher was all of these and more. A child of Hollywood royalty — she made the front page of The Times before she was even born — who made a name for herself as only she could. An advocate for those coping with mental illness. A talented author who wrote novels and, away from the spotlight, doctored scripts. “Skewering stereotypes, inanities and lazy thinking with a lance of wit and hard-won insight was Fisher’s specialty,” writes Meredith Woerner in an appreciation of Fisher, who died at age 60. “And for a long time, she did it all by her lonesome.”

More About Carrie Fisher

-- Author John Scalzi remembers: “Carrie Fisher played a galactic princess, but she had a working writer’s gift for understanding how people talk, and how language works. At 22, she had ‘it.’”

-- Her life in words and pictures.

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The Developer, the Donations and the 20-Story Tower

Rick Caruso has built the Grove and the Americana at Brand among other properties. He’s also made lots of donations, including to some of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s favorite causes and to most of the city’s elected officials. Now he wants to get the OK for a 20-story residential tower on La Cienega Boulevard, even though current regulations limit building height to 45 feet. And Caruso isn’t the only developer making big contributions as projects await approval. Can those decisions at City Hall remain “absolutely separate” from the donations, as Garcetti insists?

What Will Be John Kerry’s Legacy?

As secretary of State, John Kerry has traveled to all corners of the world. But with his time in office coming to a close next month, his record of diplomatic successes and failures over the past four years is mixed. As for the Iran nuclear deal, which some count as his biggest accomplishment? Donald Trump has vowed to undo it.

Year in Review: When Everything in Politics Changed

It was a presidential campaign filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, emails and insults — one that will be analyzed for years to come. But as columnist Cathleen Decker writes in her year-end essay, part of our ongoing look at 2016, Trump’s victory came down to “a deep desire for change. The question for 2017: Is the change Americans get the change they wanted?”

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MORE FROM OUR YEAR IN REVIEW

-- To capture the toll of terror, The Times tracked every fatal act of terrorism around the world in April.

-- These are the 749 inmates awaiting execution on California’s death row.

-- The year in photos: The battle of Mosul. Southern California wildfires. L.A.’s new tallest building. And much more.

-- The 10 best albums of a year defined by loss.

CALIFORNIA

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-- Public inspection records, city emails and interviews show that the city of Oakland for more than a decade often failed to conduct safety inspections on illegally converted warehouses, even those that were well known.

-- A brewery and the City of Industry are battling over a failed deal to relocate the beer maker’s operations.

-- San Diego is making it easier to name portions of city streets after prominent people and organizations by creating a streamlined “honorary” policy.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Movie review: “Paterson,” Jim Jarmusch’s wonderfully serene and beguiling new film, unfolds as a series of verbal jokes so deadpan they’re almost subliminal.

-- Bryan Cranston and Megan Mullally are bringing brass, class and sneaky-sexy chemistry to the movie “Why Him?”

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-- British author Richard Adams, who wrote the children’s literature classic “Watership Down,” has died at age 96.

-- Did you know The Times has two official art dogs? Now you do.

NATION-WORLD

-- Undaunted by the United Nations’ rebuke, Israel is moving forward with building thousands of new homes in a part of East Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians as their future capital.

-- The brawl of America: Fights broke out in shopping malls in nearly a dozen states the day after Christmas, and officials are pointing to social media’s role in the violence.

-- Here’s how rescuers found the woman who trekked 26 miles in the snow through the Grand Canyon.

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-- This roadside salesman outside Kabul is known for selling the best hashish: “Everyone loves me,” he says.

BUSINESS

-- A downtown L.A. high-rise that once had a role in TV’s “L.A. Law” is getting a dramatic makeover in the hopes of luring new tenants. It will even have a signature scent.

-- Disney once again dominated the record-setting movie box office this year, but Hollywood is contending with languishing attendance.

-- Prices on used cars are down and expected to keep dropping, thanks to good old supply and demand.

SPORTS

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-- It’s the Year of the Freshman for Pac-12 basketball. Too bad only a handful will become sophomores.

-- Today in college football: Our bowl game previews and picks.

OPINION

-- A proposal that would ban adults unaccompanied by children from entering playgrounds in L.A. is fear-based policy making at its worst.

-- Listen to Sen. Barbara Boxer speak with Patt Morrison about leaving the Senate in the era of Trump.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

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-- Russian officials have admitted to a wide-ranging doping operation at the 2014 Winter Olympics. (New York Times)

-- You may not know Raymond Loewy’s name, but you know his designs. He had a theory for how to sell anything too. (The Atlantic)

-- The consensus: A list of the year’s best books based on 36 best-of lists. (Quartz)

ONLY IN L.A.

The Rose Parade has been rained upon only 10 times in more than 125 years. Though we don’t want to jinx it, the 2017 edition looks as though it will be precipitation-free too, but only because the festivities are being pushed back one day to Jan. 2. Why is that? The “Never on Sunday” rule, which started in 1893 to avoid spooking the horses hitched outside church.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.

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